Lucid dream: Ars reviews Ubuntu 10.04

Ubuntu 10.04, codenamed Lucid Lynx, is an ambitious update of one of the most …

There is a new "Featured Applications" section that displays a list of some of the best software that is available from the repositories, but not included in the default selection. This list evolved from Ubuntu upstream relations manager (and former Linux Ars contributor) Jorge Castro's "B-Sides" project, which previously served a similar function. A button that links to the Featured Applications section is displayed prominently on the home screen of the Software Center so that it will be easily accessible to users.

The Software Center's featured application list

Some of the applications that are part of the Featured list include Inkscape, GNOME Do, GIMP, and Getting Things GNOME. Ubuntu's repository contains over 30,000 packages, which means that finding the best software can sometimes be like looking for a needle in a haystack. For new users who aren't yet familiar with the best-of-breed third-party applications, the new Featured list could be a potent ally.

The Software Center has gained several other new features that similarly aim to boost application discoverability. Some of the categories have subcategories that can be used to further filter the list of installable applications. For example, when the user clicks on the Internet category, they will be able to select subcategories like Chat, File Sharing, Mail, and Web Browsers. The Developer Tools category has subcategories for individual programming languages and frameworks, such as Java, Mono, Python, and Haskell.

The subcategories of the Software Center's Internet section

The addition of subcategories makes the breadcrumb navigator, which resides at the top of the window, a lot more important than it was in the previous version. It got a nice aesthetic overhaul and now actually looks like a proper breadcrumb widget instead of toggle buttons.

The application installation screen has been restructured a little bit. The "install" button is now displayed at the top of the page, right under the application title and short description. The screenshots that are embedded in the window are bigger, but can still be clicked to display a full-sized view in a separate window.

When you click the install button, a progress bar appears immediately below it to show the current installation status. When it finishes, the page will be updated to indicate that the installation is complete. In Karmic, the software center would automatically jump to the activity screen when the user began installing a program—a somewhat disorienting context shift. The new in-place progress bar fixes that problem and delivers a nice usability boost.

Installing Inkscape from the Software Center in Lucid

I tend to subscribe to a lot of Ubuntu Personal Package Archives (PPAs), unsupported third-party repositories that are hosted on Canonical's Launchpad collaboration site. PPAs are particularly useful for users who want to track the latest versions of certain software, which is why I often rely on PPAs when I conduct reviews. The new version of the Software Center will display a list of the PPAs that the user has subscribed to in the sidebar, making it easy to see which ones are enabled at a glance. When you click on one, it will show a list of the packages that are available from that PPA.

Viewing the contents of the Gwibber PPA in the Software Center

One of my biggest complaints about the Software Center in Karmic was that it would filter out a lot of non-GUI packages, including programming libraries and command-line tools. This made it practically useless for many power users, forcing us to continue resorting to "apt-get" at the command line. The new version in Lucid has fortunately kicked that annoying habit, making the Software Center a lot more useful to users like me. I can now finally install gnome-devel and Synergy without having to pop open a terminal window. My only remaining gripe as a power user is that keyboard accessibility could be a tad bit better. It would be nice if there was a keyboard shortcut to activate the "Install" item from the "File" menu.

Although the enormous ecosystem of packaged third-party software (much of which is inherited from Debian) is a major asset for Ubuntu, its value is largely undermined by a fundamental lack of awareness among new users. The previous tools made it too difficult for users to navigate the labyrinthine multitude of available packages and identify the good software. Canonical's improvements to the Software Center are important steps on the path to solving that problem. It exposes some of the best-of-breed desktop Linux applications and help users find what they're looking for.